Systems and methods for processing substrates such as microelectronic devices are known. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 7,156,927 (Christenson et al.), the entirety of which reference is incorporated herein by reference for all purposes, discloses in the Abstract that a treating chemical is introduced to a bath under conditions effective to at least partially envelop the object to be treated in eddy currents of the bath liquid, followed by introducing non-treating liquid into the bath under conditions effective to at least partially envelop the object to be treated in eddy currents of the bath liquid.
As another example, U.S. Pat. No. 7,312,161 (Siefering et al.), the entirety of which reference is incorporated herein by reference for all purposes, discloses in the Abstract that the variability of immersion processes for treatment of semiconductor devices can be significantly lowered by initiating the termination of a treatment process according to a predetermined treatment termination protocol in a manner that takes into account the contribution of, in particular, the treatment that is carried out during the period of time in the treatment process in which the treatment process is being terminated. In a preferred embodiment, conditions that indicate the progress of the treatment on a real time basis are monitored, and the timing of the initiation of the termination process is additionally based on the calculated amount of treatment and treatment rate of the process in progress. See also, U.S. Pub. No. 2003/0094196 (Siefering et al.), the entirety of which reference is incorporated herein by reference for all purposes, as a reference directed to advanced process control for immersion processing.
The manufacture of substrates can often be very complex, requiring a plurality of processing steps to be performed utilizing a variety of fluids, liquids and/or solutions. Further, due to the nature of substrates such as microelectronic devices, the tolerance range for any degree of error or nonconformance to manufacturing standards is extremely low. Variability of treatment processes for microelectronic devices can be introduced by the difficulty to control the timing of fluid delivery to the substrate(s) and the concentration and the temperature of chemicals used in the processes, particularly when comparing intra-substrate and inter-substrate uniformity of the treatment processes.
There continues to be a need to address variabilities (e.g., timing of fluid delivery to the substrate(s), fluid temperature, fluid composition, combinations of these, and the like) associated with systems and methods of processing one or more substrates.